OPO: Raspberries

Which songs have that?

"Tonight," "I Wanna Be You" right before the chorus.

Not hearing it on the last album though. Did hear a bass voice on the right channel of "Overnight Sensation" I never noticed before.

THREE FOUR ONE You looked too young to know about romance. Oh yes you did
THREE FOUR ONE But when you smiled I had to take a chance, I had to to take a chance and be with you
Tonight, I'll be with you tonight
Tonight, you'll love me too tonight

If we were older
ONE THREE FOUR ONE
We wouldn't have to be worried tonight
ONE (two) and THREE FOUR ONE
THREE FOUR ONE (= Ba-by Oh)
I wanna with you so bad
Yeah I wanna be with you

"Go All The Way" too

Please THREE FOUR ONE (=Ba-by go)

and elsewhere throughout the song

do u see?

Interesting stuff. I wonder if they got it from somewhere.

On another thread it was suggested that they borrowed heavily from The Small Faces.

I was just listening to The Beach Boys Today the other day and the chorus melody in "She Knows Me Too Well" rang the Raspberries bell. The descending part is also in the chorus of "Go All the Way."

I'm like a humungous Wally Bryson fan, btw.

OK, I did this:

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-raspberries-ecstasy-1973.html

Cool. Why does it say "tenor"? Also dominant prep chord, is that a V of V?

Ha, I have to select something for what voice it is on that notation program!

Yeah, dominant prep could be a V of V, but IV are ii are also considered to be chords that lead to the dominant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predominant_chord

B-b-but it still puts the Treble Clef!

Yeah, ended up reading that Wikipedia article. Pretty useful term actually.

What software did you use to write that btw? I started using MuseScore which is free. Didn't want to deal with obtaining a copy of the more popular alternatives.

Yeah, I used MuseScore. I don't know, maybe you can have staff lines without identifying which voice it is somehow? I haven't tried.

Now I remember and I think your are right. I chose Electric Bass for something but I was scared because the guy I was showing it to was an upright player.

By the way, I checked on that "She Knows Me Too Well"/"Go All the Way" melody and the Raspberries do it a whole step lower. I've wondered if appropriations happen close to exact pitch more often than people might realize.

can't believe I never noticed that before. maybe it's because it's a whole step lower

You have perfect pitch, Shakey?

Same chords, too - both songs are moving from vi to IV when that happens.

I have never understood what perfect pitch entails tbh

Assume it means you know the name and exact pitch of any note you hear, even out of context. Which is usually a good thing but can mess people up if others are not playing at concert pitch or something is tuned down a half-step etc.

yeah I don't "have" that. I guess my confusion about the term stems from it often being referred to as this mystical "talent" that people just innately have, whereas it seems like the kind of thing anybody should be able to learn with practice. (I have not bothered to practice).

what I was getting at about my not noticing this particular similarity is that I am usually pretty good at recalling/spotting melodies, but since I didn't notice this one maybe it was the difference in key that threw me.

There was some popular book recently by a music executive who went back school and started doing brain studies related to music and iirc he said that there was research that showed that at some low level the brain has absolute pitch but most people do not have conscious access to it.

I mean, I may not have perfect pitch but I can tell the difference between a melody played in different keys

xp

I can often correctly deduce what key a song is in, but if asked to sing a particular note I can only estimate (though I'm usually within +/- a couple of notes in either direction). From what I understand that doesn't quite qualify as perfect pitch.

My OPO is "Let's Pretend", which sometimes feels like it could be the official song of ~my life~.....

"Let's Pretend" also utilizes that Raspbolero beat.

This thread really should have been a POX.

I think the highest note in that is D an octave above middle C and it doesn't sound like he's using his falsetto. Incredible voice.

Yeah, pretty nice.

Almost think it would be interesting to do TS Raspberries vs. 10cc but I dunno.

How about "On the Beach" from Side 3? Feels like it has about 7 parts -- including a great melancholy verse, a ridiculously optimistic chorus, a fast middle-8, and an excellent "I Want You/She's So Heavy" descending guitar pastiche with seagulls squawking in the background.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, July 1, 2012 10:21 PM (11 months ago)

For a guy who doesn't like the Beatles I'm awfully fond of bands that (try to) sound like them.

On another thread it was suggested that they borrowed heavily from The Small Faces.

That was almost certainly me!

Spinning off from the Groupies/Star Mag revive...

https://www.star1973.com/rollswagen.html

Ha, wow, nice. Yeah, it seems like Star really loved this band.

Lol @ "Rollswagen"

I love that "Go All The Way" has a 4-bar verse and a 16-bar chorus

Otm

Awesome! "Ecstasy" is 8-bar verse and 16-bar chorus.

Yeah, it seems like Star really loved this band.

I imagine Capital was greasing the wheels pretty heavily, but it is interesting--if one didn't know any better, by looking at those mags, you would think the Raspberries were as big as the Stones, Bowie, Alice etc.

I don't think they really had a song that clicked after "Go All the Way," although you would think any of them - "I Wanna Be with You," "Let's Pretend," "Tonight," "Overnight Sensation" - could have. Maybe they just didn't fit in enough.

Metal Mike Saunders wrote a piece on Raspberries for a late '80s called Swellsville that I wish I still had. One of the things I remember about it was him talking about Raspberries having the courage to open for Blue Oyster Cult at some Chicago show in '73 even though it wasn't their crowd.

Off the top of my head I’d say that maybe at the time things had to signify as either more rock or more pop and they were trying to split the difference which had gone out of fashion. But this is just pure speculation on my part.
Xp

Never knew that Bruce Springsteen and Max Weinberg were pretty serious fans until I just read about it on Wikipedia.

maybe at the time things had to signify as either more rock or more pop

Yeah, you would think, but then "Go All the Way" did pretty well. Maybe signifying as pop, I don't know. In any case, they weren't able to follow it up.

Maybe they were too formulaic! "I Wanna Be with You" does that same thing, too, with a 6-bar verse and 16-bar chorus! To me, they are formulaic in an awesome way.

Yeah, to me too, but I don’t always have my finger on the pulsebeat of young America, as has been demonstrated on a few occasions.

In other news, listening to a few tracks on this Pop Art Live album and not hating it. Don’t know how many actual Raspberries are on it, but it sounds like Eric singing and the rest sends pretty faithful to the classic sound.

Apparently it’s the classic lineup. *takes a breath*

Beatles and Who covers too

https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/pop-art-live/

I come to this thread for the Raspberry strudel, it’s great.

Didn’t remember that copy of Taking Liberties in the background.

a then-newly restored The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick talking about saving some money by swapping out some songs on the soundtrack.

Supposedly the impossibility of obtaining music rights is the reason why Wenders' debut, Summer in the City, has never been released.

Anyway, if for some reason I had to Only Pick One Raspberries song, it might be "Let's Pretend". But they are probably the epitome of a band that could create a great compilation with only enough good songs for a compilation.

Fair point. Or so I used to think.

Side 3 is a solid album though

^^Probably my favorite. Also has the best artwork (die-cut, baby!).

this song from his early days band Cyrus Erie rocks so hard, extremely Who-like right down to the drums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Dtg295wVk

Too bad Jonathan Richman didn’t see fit to put the Raspberries on his graph.

#onethread!

“I Don’t Know What I Want” has that beautiful melisma from “So Sad About Us,” too (“And you’d think I was committin’ some kind of criii-i-i-ime” = “You can’t switch off my lovin’ like you can’t switch off the suuu-u-u-un”).

I’m reluctant to bring up the subject of postmodernism because people seem to have different views of what it is, but I don’t how else to talk about something that I think is key to Raspberries. They’re a very early example of music where the gesture is the important thing, much more so than whatever the content would be. They’re so much more like this than Big Star. Maybe it’s partly me, but I’ve always been less invested in, you know, whether Eric gets the girl or whatnot and more invested in things like how Wally looks rocking out. Or “OMG it’s The Who.” Stuff like that.

I think that’s really why “Overnight Sensation” works so perfectly as their signature song. They were always kind of a band about a band. It makes their dissolution kind of sad and “Overnight Sensation” really works that poignancy in retrospect.

Now that Eric has died as well. Even more so.

really very otm

great post

Jesus, it wasn't! It was the nerdy guy he was like mentoring? I clearly haven't seen it in like 20 years. Also, I think it was somebody's baby. I was getting it was GATW but as soon as I read that it felt right.

I like Tim’s post and may want to add to it, but need to get some shuteye.